Lord of the Fries, Melbourne

Would you like fries with that?

In continuing our foodie weekend in Melbourne, and despite being still relatively full from breakfast at European, we lazily headed towards the heart of Melbourne’s CBD for lunch.

Lord of the Fries, I belatedly found out, is a vegetarian burger joint. It has two burger joints actually: one is a store front with two sides opened towards Flinders St and into Flinders St Station, and the other is a tiny store on the corner of Elizabeth St and Flinders St. It is unmistakeable with its bold white on red sign and the line of people impatiently waiting for their turn. The lack of seating on the Flinders St side (there are several communal benches inside the station) had us finding a shady spot on the steps of Federation Square (off to the side of course to avoid being trampled on). It was kind of fun actually – kind of like a fast food picnic!

The restaurant boasts of having a lot of yummy sauces to go on your hot chips, as well as two sizes of burger to choose from. Their website proudly shows off the dimensions of the burger, but like with everything else, it’s kind of hard to really grasp how big they actually are until you see it for yourself.

Regular-sized Burger with Spicy Patty ($5.45), and Mini-sized Burger with Original Patty ($2.95)

How to hold your Regular-sized Burger *nom*

The size difference between the two is, as you can see, quite significant. Where it takes two hands to hold the regular sized burger, the mini fits nice and cutely on my palm (which, unfortunately, I’ve forgotten to take a photo of).

Regular-sized Burger with Spicy Patty ($5.45), and Mini-sized Burger with Original Patty ($2.95)

While the burger comes stock with melted cheese, lettuce, and caramelised onion, the patties come in two varieties: regular and spicy. The regular patty is served with kosher pickles and slathering of tomato sauce, mustard, and mayonnaise, whereas the spicy patty is served with jalapenos, salsa, and sour cream.

The regular-sized burger had the spicy patty, which I was told had a bit of a kick but nothing that couldn’t be handled. I had opted for the mini original-patty burger, as I wasn’t really hungry yet and I was mindful of the degustation we were going to have for dinner.

It really didn’t taste like a vegetarian burger – it tasted almost like the “real” thing! A very good “real” burger. The bun was fresh and wonderfully soft, which is not surprising as Lord of the Fries has their buns delivered daily by a local bakery. I didn’t find much wrong with it though if I were to nitpick, I would say that the patty was a bit soggier than the normal beef patty, but that’s only if I was nitpicking. =P

The array of sauces available proved a bit too much for my fellow foodie, as he struggled to pick one, and he finally managed to choose the French-Canadian (Poutine) sauce. Oh my goodness, whoever thought of this cheese and gravy combination was a genius. It was all savoury and cheesy, complimenting that scrumptious potato taste perfectly. It was absolutely delicious.

Hot Chips with Iceland Sauce in a Cone ($3.95 + $1.25 for sauce)

My choice of the Sauce of the Month (Iceland Sauce) was not that great, it was more at the other end of the scale. Advertised to be a “sweet and creamy” mayo, it was anything but: it was slightly sour and not creamy at all. After the third chip, I was convinced that our server had liberally covered my hot chips with sour cream instead. Bit of a shame really. I knew I should have gone for the Italian sauce: cheese melted by Napoli tomato sauce.

I love my hot chips crunchy, the crunchier the better, and while the chips here were very good, they weren’t as crunchy as I would have liked (nor had any of those small crunchy pieces). I know some people like their hot chips slightly soggy or soft and I think they would have appreciated these a lot more than I did. Though I would have to say that I felt the chips were not only perfectly seasoned, they were made from actual potatoes and not reconstituted potatoes or whatever they use to make those almost powdery hot chips (you know the ones I’m talking about right?) and the oil they used wasn’t old or below-par.

Hot Chips with Thai Sauce in a Cone ($3.95 + $0.75 for sauce)

Lord of the Fries’ website proudly proclaims to have the best fries – a statement which my fellow foodie agrees with whole-heartedly, but I may need a bit more convincing.

While I really liked the chips, my fellow foodie loved it. So much so, we ended up having it with the Thai sauce (“golden satay sauce”) for lunchinner. The sauce was more like peanut butter with the satay taste thrown in as an after taste. I had my reservations about how nice this would actually taste, but surprisingly it was quite yum… for the first half of the cone. After a while, the thick peanut sauce congealed a bit as the chips cooled (it was a mildly cold kind of day) and kind of made a thick peanut-coat on the tongue. (So don’t let that happen if you are to order the Thai sauce on a cold day!)

Nice number of awards under their belt

I was easily impressed by their awards and had to agree they use darn good mock meat, possibly the best I’ve ever tasted.

Lord of the Fries was recommended by my co-worker, Liya, and thanks to her I’ve got a pretty good fast food vegetarian alternative to McDonald’s for whenever I’m down in Melbourne. Yay!

I experienced the fries on my last trip to Melbourne! I didn’t realise it was a vegetarian burger place and still hadn’t until I read your blog as my friend and I weren’t after a meal, I was just after a chip fix! As I also don’t like soggy chips, I ordered mine without any sauce and they were delicious just plain. The crispiness lasted all the way back to the hotel room and later. Hmmm, I wonder if they would serve the sauce on the side?!

That’s exactly how they serve chips in street stalls or snack bars in Holland and Belgium. I have been waiting for this concept to reach Australia. Too bad, I haven’t heard of one in Sydney The sauces available in Holland are mayo, peanut satay sauce (Indonesia was colonized by Dutch, some of their dishes and sauces are influenced by Indonesia), curry (the similar kind of curry sauce you had with your sausages in German), ketchup and piccalilly. In Belgium, they only serve with mayo sauce, nothing else! The Belgium Restaurant Epoque in Cammeray used to served the best thick Belgium chips with the authentic Belgium mayo, but they no longer do so….

panda: hahah yeah – i didn’t know it was a vegetarian burger til my foodie friend pointed it out to me. Terribly surprised.

Glad you like our blog! Hope you come back often =)

Anita: Tell me about it. Everything sounded so good and so I felt a bit let down by it.

shez: hahaha the servings are really generous, aren’t they? We were so stuffed after that. Practically rolled back to our hotel for a little afternoon nap! hahah

Arwen from Hoglet K: Oh well, these things happen I suppose =P But yes, the mock meat was really convincing!

Belle@OohLook: The mock meat, the website tells me, is made from “Textured Vegetable Protein”, which gives it the “look, taste, and texture of beef with virtually no fat”.

Linda: Totally agree with you on it being delicious being served plain. My foodie friend kept saying that even without the sauce it was seasoned really well – and it was! =) Oooh, I should have asked for that! I like dipping my chips. Next time, next time ^_^

FFichiban: Hahah do we have another crispy chips fan?

Ellie: They serve chips with mayo in Berlin as well! Seems like a European thing haha. I don’t think they have the other sauces in Berlin though – mmm sounds delish! ^_^ And I concur, sucks that Sydney doesn’t have a place like this, serving chips with all sorts of sauces. (Or if we do, why haven’t we heard about it!?)

Nate: Their mock meat is made from textured vegetable protein – something I’ve never heard of before, but maybe you can make better sense of it than I can ^_^ hehe

billy@ATFT: Definitely go =) Hopefully you won’t have to wait in line for too long!

sydneyguyrojoe: Yeah, the poutine sauce is basically cheese and gravy – doesn’t sound all that nice does it? But somehow it just works =D

what a surprise for me that vegetarian burgers are really exist Sounds absolutely amazing! Would be awesome with my favorite pesto sauce also I guess
.-= tasterussian´s last blog ..Meat with herbs and garlic in a baking sleeve =-.

Yeah i didn’t realise it was vego til i was ordering a burger & chips, and it was quite expensive & then i realised why- cos its vego.. but it was VERY nice food. Next time i will order the BIG burger not the tiny one as it is the size of my thumbnail (still quite filling when you get it with the chips). It is a bit exxy, but since i only visit Melbourne once a year i will try it again next time for sure.

heyyyyyyyy………lord of the fries it self says there are good for fries but not burgers as the burgers are veg …they were severing them as chicken burgers and the taste of them was quite unforunate ….mr lord dont try to cheat people…tell them before serving.

If your wanting to experience ‘junk food’ without the guilt of animal abuse, this is the place to go. The best burgers and your meat eating friends don’t even reaslise! Check out my extended rating on WOMOW(Reeces)